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Torchy's Tacos with Jon Gabrus (LIVE in Austin)
"Torchy's Tacos with Jon Gabrus (LIVE in Austin)" is Episode 133 of Doughboys, hosted by Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger, with Jon Gabrus. "Torchy's Tacos with Jon Gabrus (LIVE in Austin)" was released on December 14, 2017. Synopsis Comedian, actor, and writer Jon Gabrus (Real Housewives of Las Vegas, Guy Code, Upright Citizen's Brigade) joins the 'boys to review Torchy's Tacos, an Austin institution serving up creative twists on 'damn good' tacos. Nick's intro March, 1875: the Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad Company is chartered and begins construction of a 52-mile line connecting San Diego, Texas to Corpus Christi. In 1881, the Company changed ownership and is rechartered as the Texas Mexican Railway. The new owners extended the line to Laredo, a border town that would become the primary port of entry for rail commerce into the U.S. from Mexico. This physical connection between two of North America's largest economies would morph into a civilizational connection, reflected in the Texas Mexican Railway's commonly used shortened name, the Tex-Mex. "Tex-Mex" became slang for the cultural merging of these two independent states, most enduringly, for food. In San Antonio in the late 19th century, Hispanic women known as Chili Queens gave birth to Tex-Mex cuisine by selling chili con carne, tamales, and enchiladas at outdoor stands to local workers. The distinctively-flavored offerings of these pioneering vendors soon migrated across the Lone Star State and would become as much a part of Texas food culture as chicken fried steak and pecan pie. In 2006, Michael Rypka, who'd started out as a fry cook at Popeye's, then rose in the restaurant industry ranks to eventually be an executive chef at the World Bank, left the world of fine dining cuisine for finance tycoons to serve down-home Tex-Mex to Austinites, mortgaging his house to open a taqueria that operated out of a trailer. The shop struggled at first, so Rypka engaged in guerilla marketing, by riding around in his Vespa, handing out free chips and salsa to tempt locals over to his makeshift storefront. Once they tasted the food, including the restaurant's queso and green chile pork, locals couldn't stay away and one customer is said to have proclaimed, "Damn! These tacos are good!"... "Damn Good" thus becoming a key element in their branding. The trailer expanded into storefronts throughout the city and today, just a scant eleven years after its founding, and over a century since the Chili Queens and the Narrow Gauge Railroad brought this food scene into existence, there are locations across the state and even in Oklahoma and Colorado, meaning these Tex-Mex eateries cover more geographic ground then the old Tex-Mex Railway herself. This week on Doughboys: Torchy's Tacos. Fork rating Drank or Stank In Drank or Stank, they try a beverage to decide if it is worth putting in your throat. In this episode, they, and an audience member, taste some local beers from Austin Beerworks. Roast Spoonman Quotes #hashtags #LightMeUp vs. #TorchSongTrilogy The Feedbag Photos (via @doughboyspod)